HELP!!! White spots appearing on roof!!!!

[mpgmusic]

Those of you who know me in this forum know I baby my M45 like crazy. Recently I noticed a few white "spots" on the roof. I tried to buff them out (pretty aggressively) to no avail. It looked like maybe some type of acidic water or something dripped on my roof. Anyway, as the weeks wore on, I noticed more drops and now my roof is covered with these white dots. They are not specs (like overspray, but rather larger white dots, some as large as a quarter inch in diameter) Have any of you experienced this before and might you have any idea what these horrible dots are? I've read on some G35 forums that they have experienced clear coat failures on certain models, but the pics I have seen for those failures looks more like peeling paint than just white spots like this. Any ideas? BTW, I would post a pic, but I don't know how to attached it to this message. Thanks!

[Rogue One]

Sounds like tree sap. Hard to tell without pictures.

[whitewolfdog74]

I have the same thing on mine.I noticed mine starting to appear like 2 weeks ago but seems like they may have faded a little since.maybe something with the crimson paint?

[whitewolfdog74]

[Ilya]

Looks like a hard water spot or something. Is it rough to the touch or smooth?

[Larz]

At first glance, it appears to be a drop that splatted, but if you magnify it, it looks like the clear coat is degrading. Any water spot or a drop of contaminant would buff off very easily. I suggest you slide by body shop and have someone give it a closer look. They should be able to tell you if it is something on the clear coat surface or if it a defect in the paint or clear coat.

[Sstupid]

Sorry buddy, but that is what happens when bird-pewp is allowed to sit too long on the paint and then the sun takes over. That is damage to the clear coat that cannot be buffed out. If you were to try to buff it, you would likely go completely through the clear coat, but that damage already goes all the way through it, anyway. All you can do is repaint or not worry about it. Keep your car out of the sun as much as possible, like if you park it in the sun at work, cover it.

[whitewolfdog74]

Definitely not bird poop

[Six_Legs]

If that's what the OP's looks like then that is clear coat damage. That's how it started on my crimson 240.
I would do what Larz said and stop by a body shop to get their opinion and go from there.
You will prob have to repaint or you could do what I did and have the roof wrapped in black gloss vinyl.

[Sstupid]

That first pic was definitely an old bird pewp spot. The acid from the bird pewp eats at the clear coat, then the sun makes it worse. it's just regular old clear coat degradation due to sun exposure.

[mdstahl1]

sorry, looks like clearcoat failure that I had....needed to repaint. Infiniti is aware of the issue in 2006 and 2007 cars. They covered half of my expense (hood and roof)

[BlackCat81]

Based on the high gloss in the clear on the hood and some of your other pics in the album, and the dull, orange peeled paint on the roof in your phone light shining on it, I'd say it looks like the roof has been painted previously.

[mpgmusic]

Hi everyone,
Thanks for all of the comments. I have gone to two different paint shops. Neither one suggested that it was a clearcoat paint failure. Both suggested that it was some type of acidic liquid (incidentally, they also both said that they have seen this appear on other cars and that it could be water coming from an overhead bridge as it starts to rain). I drive on a HWY and go under about 20 bridges on the way to work. What was suggested to me is that liquids on the road on the bridge (ie; battery acids or coolant fluid or other auto liquids) wash off the bridge when it starts to rain and that the water that falls from a bridge can be VERY acidic. This story sounds a bit like a stretch to me. Whitewolfdog - your picture looks EXACTLY like my room. EXACTLY. Six_Legs, you mentioned that Infiniti is aware of a paint issue on 06 and 07 M cars? I am going to drive by the dealer and have them look at it. Would be interested to see if they knew of this at my dealer. I received a quote from a reputable body shop to paint the roof of my car for $350. I didn't think that was so bad. Thanks again for the hints. Any other info, especially about the possible Infiniti paint problem/solution would be helpful as well.

[mpgmusic]

Hi everyone,
Thought I would give an update. Infiniti dealer body shop here in Dallas DID diagnose the paint issue as a clearcoat failure. I was then instructed to contact Infiniti consumer affairs to ask for possible assistance to pay for a re-paint. After a painstaking 4 weeks of back and forth with Infiniti corp., they said "yep, looks like a failure, and NO we are not doing anything to help you". I realize my car 9 years old and out of the warranty period, but I also think it's pretty bad when you buy a "luxury" brand vehicle, have it in a garage (day and night) its entire life and end up having to repaint it because of a bad factory paint job. Needless to say, I'm not happy. It is at a body shop right now getting the roof and hood repainted. I can only hope that it turns out ok. BTW, it was a $1,000 for the paint job. Thanks Infiniti.

[Ilya]

Hi everyone,
Thought I would give an update. Infiniti dealer body shop here in Dallas DID diagnose the paint issue as a clearcoat failure. I was then instructed to contact Infiniti consumer affairs to ask for possible assistance to pay for a re-paint. After a painstaking 4 weeks of back and forth with Infiniti corp., they said "yep, looks like a failure, and NO we are not doing anything to help you". I realize my car 9 years old and out of the warranty period, but I also think it's pretty bad when you buy a "luxury" brand vehicle, have it in a garage (day and night) its entire life and end up having to repaint it because of a bad factory paint job. Needless to say, I'm not happy. It is at a body shop right now getting the roof and hood repainted. I can only hope that it turns out ok. BTW, it was a $1,000 for the paint job. Thanks Infiniti.

That's terrible. Perhaps a report to the BBB, etc. might make it sting for them a bit?

[Sstupid]

Sorry about your issues. Honda did pay 70 percent of the cost of reprinting the roof, deck lid, and hood of my wife's Fiji Blue Civic Si but they wouldn't pay anything towards either bumper, which had the same clear coat issue. It's not a good situation for sure. At least Honda tried.

[mpgmusic]

That's a great story about Honda. Something similar happened to my sister. Her civic was 9 years old and her hood was a nightmare from paint failure. Honda paid half to get it fixed. I'm really sad, because I've been a HUGE Nissan fan my whole life (first car was a 1980 200 sx, 2nd car was a sentra, I've also owned a QX4 before my M45). Anyway, I'll let you guys know how the repaint goes. I pick up my baby tomorrow. I sure hope she isn't screwed up.

[TDot]

$1,000 is too much for just too sections. Average is $350 a section at reputable capable shops...and that's in rip off capital NY. And no I'm not talking minakee like painting.

[chairmankaga]

The roof seems like it would be the easiest. The drip rails provide a clean separation from the rest of the body, so getting an absolute match isn't critical. I bet you could get an acceptable quality job for $300 or so. But if you're also trying to match the hood and trunk? That's a lot harder, accounting for fading. Still, it's just sand, prime, paint, clear, wet sand, polish. A good shop could do that in ha;f a day plus materials. If you're feeling cocky and they're OK with it, you could save an hour or so and do the polishing yourself.

[mpgmusic]

Well, the challenge of painting the roof PROPERLY, is they must remove the shark fin antenna. To do this, you have to access it behind the roof liner inside which means the interior roof liner must be removed. Yes, someone could have just sprayed the roof as is, but that's the wrong way (ie cheap way to do it) and I wanted to be done right. They completed the work and it looks amazing - like a brand new car both roof and hood. However, when re-installing the headliner, the fabric started to sag. They have agreed to replace the roofliner as well.

Anyway, it's been a huge mess. I am happy that my car is being fixed, but still pissed I had to do all of this and tha Infiniti did nothing for me. Thanks for all of the helpful comments. :-)

[TOASTERGOD]

Infiniti consumer affairs is the absolute worst. If its out of warranty forget it. Even on a recall issue, where I had fixed a prior issue they would not put the car back the way it was when I took it to them.

[BlackCat81]

Hi everyone,
Thought I would give an update. Infiniti dealer body shop here in Dallas DID diagnose the paint issue as a clearcoat failure. I was then instructed to contact Infiniti consumer affairs to ask for possible assistance to pay for a re-paint. After a painstaking 4 weeks of back and forth with Infiniti corp., they said "yep, looks like a failure, and NO we are not doing anything to help you". I realize my car 9 years old and out of the warranty period, but I also think it's pretty bad when you buy a "luxury" brand vehicle, have it in a garage (day and night) its entire life and end up having to repaint it because of a bad factory paint job. Needless to say, I'm not happy. It is at a body shop right now getting the roof and hood repainted. I can only hope that it turns out ok. BTW, it was a $1,000 for the paint job. Thanks Infiniti.

That's terrible. Perhaps a report to the BBB, etc. might make it sting for them a bit?

It's not the dealers fault that corporate declined to assist in repairs. Filing a complaint would hurt the dealer.

[mpgmusic]

Blackcat, you are right. The Dealer was actually miffed that customer affairs did nothing. Btw, my paint job turned out amazing. My car never looked better. But I hate what I had to go thru to get this Infinity paint failure fixed. Argh.